The Soul of the Weary
by JellyFish72
Summary: What would happen if Buffy and Charmed were real? Danielle's cursed with being Charmed AND a slayer. SO much better than it sounds from this, or what is posted so far.
1. Opening Arguments

The Soul of the Weary

This is not a Buffy or a Charmed fanfiction, per se, as much as it's… based?... on these shows. I'm going to bring some characters in later, but it's all new ones at the moment. You'll see, hopefully. I barely have a plotline at the moment, so this may just be, like, more of a moment to moment fanfic, where I end it when it seems fitting, or I may think of a plotline. Either way, whatever. If you don't like where it's going, or just don't like it, don't read it.

Disclaimer: I'm only going to say this once, so PLEASE listen! I don't own Buffy or Charmed. They belong to their respective creators! I'm making absolutely nothing off of this; it's just for fun!

Now that the boring part is out of the way, on to the story! You can thank my beautiful muse, Britaenny, for this story. I had this story going in a COMPLETELY different direction, then, at about 2 AM yesterday, she changed my mind.

**It was all her idea!**

Brit, you're the muse…

**I can't type though, can I?**

You are right now, Brit.

**Oh. flees**

And on that note, please, read and review!

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"Yeah, like that'll ever happen," Dani (short for Danielle) said to her two best friends, Bethany and Maria, as they walked into her house. "Mark will never ask me out. I'm just not… I don't know, I guess I'm just not his type. Besides, he's transferring to some super-exclusive boarding school that you have to be invited to." She paused, closed her eyes, and listened for any noises, and, upon hearing only silence, smiled. "It's okay, guys. It's only us for the moment." Bethany, who liked to be called Beth, and Maria visibly relaxed.

"Well," Beth sighed, "that's good. I always hate for us to be in the same place when there are other people around. It makes our job so much harder!" Maria and Dani nodded. They had a secret; one that no one would believe, even if they saw it with their own eyes. They were Charmed Ones. In fact, the few people they had told it to had brushed them off, thinking they were playing a game. After all, no one would expect a TV show to be real. Hell, they hadn't believed it, until both Beth and Maria had almost died from being possessed.

Dani reminisced about everything they had learned over the past year. There were many differences between them and the TV show. Namely, not all demons came corporeal. Whitelighters _wouldn't_ show up corporeal unless you asked specifically. Dani couldn't see demons/whitelighters/darklighters/warlocks/etc. if they were corporeal. They also couldn't possess her. She wasn't sure why, but no spells affected her, and energy balls and such didn't affect her either. Their only explanation of it was the fact that, not only was she Charmed, but she was also Wiccan, and had been since before they had found out about the whole "power of three" thing. For her to see or talk to any demon, or their whitelighter David, they had to be possessing either Beth or Maria. She was able to make up for this, though, with her finesse as a spell writer. They couldn't seem to be together at all, whether in a chat room, or on the phone, without an attack on one of them.

Dani shook her head, attempting to clear it. She noticed that her friends had already made it into the kitchen/living room area. Quickening her pace, she walked over to the fridge and opened it, pulling water out for the three of them. Beth and Maria had settled on the couch, chatting animatedly about their boyfriends. Tossing them their water bottles, Dani collapsed sideways into the armchair. While laughing about Dani's crush on Mark, a change came over Maria, and her eyes looked… it was hard to describe their change. Their normal gleam had disappeared, and been replaced by a sinister look. Recognizing this look, Dani and Beth quickly started exchanging insults with this demon, giving Dani enough time to construct a spell to vanquish it. After the demon was gone, Maria gasped, and went into her post-possession faint, during which time David came, and hung out with them until she had her strength back. This was a pretty routine occurrence ever since she had almost been killed while she was weakened from a possession. The only reason she wasn't dead was due to Dani's magical strength and Beth's quick thinking.

Dani slumped back into the armchair, and her kitten Cherry hopped into her lap. _Just another day in the insane lives of the Charmed ones_, she thought wearily.

±°±

That evening, Dani's mother opened the front door to a rather handsome man asking for Dani. Her mother looked warily at the man and said, "I'm sorry, why would you like to see her?"

The man smiled warmly and responded with a slight British accent, "Don't worry, I'm not here for any odd reason. Your daughter entered a scholarship competition for my school. My name's Robert Adams. I stopped by to see if I could interview her, and find out if she was a candidate for our school."

Visibly relaxed, Dani's mother smiled at Robert. "Of course, come in! Dani didn't say anything about a scholarship competition! She must have wanted it to be a surprise!" She led Robert into the house, and closed the door. As he walked through the house, Robert could have sworn he heard someone's voice, but he wasn't sure.

±°±

Dani sat on the end of her bed, dragging a pen through her auburn hair while she worked on a song she was writing. Balancing her guitar in her lap, she started tapping her headphones, which were connected to her amp, with her hand. Satisfied with her new beat, she picked her guitar up and started playing. She had dropped the pen by this point, and was belting the words out as she played…

ï

_So I walk this road again_

_Until I see your face once more_

_I can't understand this pain_

_I keep picking myself off the floor_

_And though I try to fight these battles_

_Please don't blame me if I fall_

_I tried my hardest but_

_I'm so weary_

_Oh so weary of this fight_

_I'm so weary…_

ï

Dani's head snapped up as a pillow hit her head. She slipped her headphones from her head. "Shut the hell up, Dani! Someone's here to see you about some scholarship or something." Dani's older sister Rachel turned and walked back out of the room, leaving Dani staring at her back. She sighed and stood up, placing her guitar on its stand as she walked out of the room. Completely confused, she kept singing her new song under her breath as she made her way down the stairs, dancing as she went.

±°±

Dani walked into the living room and saw her mother and a man sitting there. She gave the man an appraising look. He appeared to be in his late 20's or early 30's, tall, with slightly long black hair. She smiled and introduced herself. He turned her mother and asked to speak with Dani in private ("To make sure we have honest answers to our interview questions," he explained). With a proud smile that didn't quite reach her eyes, her mother hurridly left the room

Robert turned to her. Smiling a secretive smile, he made certain that her mother was gone, and said, "You know as well as I do that you never entered a scholarship competition."

Dani's guard was up. Widening her eyes slightly, and taking a step back, she started trying to figure out if he was a demon, or a warlock, or just some random person. Robert smile grew wider. "Very good! That wariness will serve you well in the future. Let's get right to the point, shall we?" Even more shocked that he noticed her reaction, she nodded. "I'll start the way I'm supposed to. 'In every generation there is a Chosen One. She alone will stand against the vampires, the-'"

"'-demons and the forces of darkness.' Yadda, yadda, yadda," she broke in, "What's with all this random Buffy crap?"

"I would think that you would see this better than anyone, Danielle. After all, you are a Charmed One." Dani assumed she looked completely shocked, because she certainly felt like it. Robert looked at her reassuringly. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone, though I believe you should tell your mother. Especially because you forgot the last line, 'She is the Slayer.' And, you also know as well as I do, I wouldn't know about your whole Charmed deal if-"

Dani interrupted again. "-if I wasn't the new slayer. Oh, shit." She dropped her head into hands.

"Don't worry, you can do this. After all, you did manage to be a Charmed one easy enough…"

Dani face adopted a slightly panicked look, "I'm sorry, but I'm spell-resistant, not 'death-resistant'!" She started hyperventilating.

"Calm down! Breathe!" Robert grabbed her arms, attempting to steady her. Dani shook his hands off with a quick toss of her shoulders, sinking to the floor.

"I… I can't do this! I'm not a-a slayer! I'm a teenage girl! I sing! I play guitar, I dance! I don't slay! Granted, I am, like, a fricking Charmed one, but that's only when I'm with my friends! Are you sure I'm the slayer? Are you sure it's not Maria or Beth?" Dani drew her knees to her chest, hugging them close to her; as if trying to keep warm.

Robert sank down to her level, attempting to look her in the eye. "Yes, I am sure it's you. Do you know why I'm sure there's no mistake? Because you're the only one of the three of you who could handle it." She eyed him warily. "Yes, you can handle it," he told her, reading her expression. "Whoever's in charge of destiny and stuff thought you were, and I trust them."

"Yeah? Well, I don't. I' don't get it… I'm not a slayer… I can't be… Can I?" Dani looked completely exhausted

Robert sat with her as she stared into space. He touched her shoulder gently, attempting to bring her out of a trance. She jumped backwards, skittering away from him.

"Danielle, calm down, it's okay… Anyway, if you haven't figured it out because I'm here, the council told me I'm to be your Watcher."

"Yeah, that's all well and good and crap, but there's the whole no-scholarship-to-a-school-so-no-way-to-meet-you-with-an-overprotective-mother problem."

"No, we actually have a school for you to go to."

Dani seemed shocked. "What?"

"Yes, it's the Delaine School of Witchcraft. We wanted you, Beth, and Maria anyway, since you're the Charmed ones, but now that you're a Slayer, we're definitely having you come."

"You mean, like in Harry Potter?" Dani's eyes lit up.

"You should know better than that, Dani. Harry Potter isn't real…" He trailed off after seeing the look of laughter on Dani's face.

"Actually… it is real… Harry had a crush on Maria for a while…" Dani grinned at him.

"Oh. Well. No, it's not like Harry Potter. Perhaps we should change the name… It would be more aptly named as the Delaine School of Wicca. It focuses on Wicca, and the kind of stuff that was on Buffy."

"Okay, then. That does sound kind of cool… What about-"

"Yes, we're inviting Beth and Maria also. I'm going to their houses tomorrow to approach their families."

"You can ask them tonight if you want… We're having a sleepover tonight, and since I'm the oldest, I'm picking Beth up on the way to Maria's house… I can give you a ride over on the way… Besides, I'd rather a Watcher, like, be there the whole time, since being alone normally results in us almost dying by knives and stuff… We don't sleep anyway…"

"Does this mean that you're accepting being a Slayer?"

"I don't exactly have a choice, now, do I?"

"Well… no. But I thought I'd make it seem like you did." Robert wasn't entirely sure whether the glare she sent him was real or not. He decided to ignore it, and smirked back. "Either way, I'd be extremely grateful for the offer for the ride. I just need to run out to my car to get some brochures and stuff."

Dani looked confused. "Why do you need brochures? You didn't need brochures with my mother…"

"You I could get away with saying you entered a scholarship. Your mother would be happy you got a scholarship. Beth and Maria, I feel that I need to have visual aids."

Dani half-smiled toward him. As she walked away to get her guitar and notebook, Robert heard her mutter under her breath. "Yeah, but she just wants me out of the house…"

±°±

Well, there you go! I did write that song in there, it's a full song, and once I work the kinks out of the music itself, I will be singing/posting it on my website. Also, as of right now, this won't have more than a passing mention of Harry Potter. I hope. Anyway, I hope you don't think this sucks too bad!


	2. Breaking the News

I'm so sorry! This has taken forever to get done! Brit decided not to give me any inspiration for this whole time! glares I've had most of this chapter written for a while, I just haven't posted it. I feel really bad for making y'all wait so long, though! I've been writing _during_ my classes at school. It's probably not the best idea not to pay attention in Chemistry and Algebra 2, but hey, it's fun. **No, it's not the best idea. That's why you have a B. **I resent that remark, Brit! **So? It's true, and you know it.** You're mean! **Yes. Your point? **Let's stop this before it goes on forever. **Agreed.**

Anyway, this chapter is dedicated to Jen and David, who want me to have a 100 page story done by two weeks ago. sigh Actually… I'm not going into this here. This one's for you, guys!

Read and review!

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Dani bounced back into the room, with a duffel bag in one hand, a guitar case in the other, and a backpack on her back. "Ready?"

Robert held up a small laptop case. "Got it all."

"Great!" Dani grinned and bounced toward the door. "Did you talk to Mom about-"

"Dani!" The teenager groaned as Diane Aurels walked into the room.

Dani's voice suddenly sounded tired, broken; a world of difference from only a moment before. "What, mother? I was about to leave for Maria's and Beth's."

"What about Mr. Adams over here? Did you win the scholarship?" Diane assumed an intimidating pose.

"Mom, he-"

"We haven't made any decisions just yet, Mrs. Aurels. I have a few more people n the area to interview. In fact, Danielle just agreed to let me follow her to, ah-," Robert made a show of checking a list of names, "a Bethany and a Maria's houses. I've been told to interview them, too. Apparently their applications were good enough to be considered for our school. We only have three open slots, though, so I have to interview all prospective applicants." Dani flashed a grateful smile to Robert behind her mother's back.

Diane smiled a cold, calculating smile. "Well, in that case, I'll let you go then. I just wanted to see if a decision had been made. Dani, will you come talk to me in the kitchen for a minute?"

Dani's eyes seemed to develop a resigned look. "Fine, Mom. Mr. Adams, I'll be out in a moment; if you'll just wait for me at the corner, that'd be great."

Robert's face betrayed a look of worry for a moment. It passed quickly, and he simply smiled a small smile, and nodded. Lifting his briefcase, he told Diane that it was good to meet her, and asked Dani to walk him to the door. Diane strode back toward the kitchen, and Dani escorted him out.

As they reached the door, Dani checked over her shoulder and told him in a hushed voice, "Just drive your car around to the other side of the block, and wait for me. You can switch into my car then." She raised her voice and continued, "I'll see you in a few minutes then. Goodbye, Mr. Adams."

As she began to close the door, he smiled and said, "Call me Robert."

Grinning, Dani shut the door, and walked back into the kitchen. She had no more stepped into the room when her mother started screaming at her. "WHY THE HELL DID YOU ENTER A SCHOLARSHIP CONTEST! Was the private school you go to now not good enough! Do you want out of here this badly! Are you trying to hide something!"

Dani stepped backwards, trying to get her mother's face out of hers. A hand shot out and grabbed her arm. Dani instantly tensed up, her hands balling into fists at her sides. "Are you trying to leave? How stupid are you, if you can't figure out that I'm still talking to you!"

Deciding to play the 'Slayer's inherent strength' card, Dani jerked her arm out of her mother's grasp. Pulling her car keys out of her pocket, she toneless told her mother, "I'm sorry this upset you. I thought it would look good on a college application, and it's a scholarship, so it's no cost to you. I was simply trying to do something good for once." With that, she turned and fled the house, grabbing her bags as she left. She threw her bags roughly into the back of her SUV. As she tore out of the driveway before her mother could reach her car, she never noticed the tears streaming down her cheeks.

±°±

Robert slid into the front seat of his Slayer's car, and set his briefcase in the backseat. As she pulled away, he noticed that it looked like she had been crying, but, as he had only met her an hour before, he didn't feel it was his place to ask. Deciding to start a conversation between the two of them, in hopes of getting to know her better, he said, "Would it be horribly rude of me to ask why you have so many bags for one night?"

Dani snickered at that. It sounded so British. "That's not rude, don't worry. Well, one of those is quite obviously my guitar. The duffel bag has my miniature amp, my pedals, my guitar music, a large pile of notebooks, pens, markers, etc. It has the book on Wicca that I can easily smuggle in and out of the house. It has clothes and makeup for the morning, as well as all my hair crap. It has a bathing suit, flip flops, a towel, my camera, and my laptop. The backpack has assorted candles, oils, incense, string, matches, salt, water, gemstones, feathers… Basically, anything you could possibly want for a spell." She threw a wary glance into the backseat. "Maybe I have too much stuff…"

Robert laughed at the thought. The girl seemed to change moods quicker than most people could process what they felt.

±°±

Dani and Robert walked up the drive to Beth's house. Both were silent for the moment; Dani was lost in thought about all that happened that day, while Robert attempted to appear apathetic and business-like. Halfway up the walk, they were assaulted by Beth, who joined Dani in an excited, jumping up and down hug. After a moment, Beth's head popped up, eyes wide. "Um, Dani, not that I'm against older guys and all, but who's he?"

Dani cracked up laughing. "That's Robert Adams. He's going in to talk to your parents about something, which I won't tell you what it is. We're going to go get your stuff. And if anyone asks, yes, you entered a scholarship competition, and it was going to be a surprise."

Beth looked completely confused, though it wasn't exactly a new look for her. "Um… okay, I guess…"

Dani was still laughing as they went inside to finish packing Beth's stuff. "Don't worry, I'll explain it all at Maria's…"

±°±

"Okay, Robert, Maria's parents aren't home tonight, but they'll be back tomorrow around noon. Is that alright?" Dani parked the car and climbed out, throwing open the back door to begin hauling bags out.

"Of-of course. Will they mind I'm here?" Robert reached over and grabbed his briefcase, attempting to grab Dani's bags, but she waved him off, lifting them easily. Robert was shocked at how easily she was adjusting to her Slayer powers; he had felt how heavy those bags were.

"Beth, come on! Maria's gonna be really mad if we don't get in our hour and a half of practice before the attacks start!" Dani was already jogging up the steps, reaching the door before Beth was fully out of the car.

As Dani reached up to ring the doorbell, someone flung the door open and grabbed her. "Dani! Beth! Some… other guy… Dani!" Maria came flying out the door to greet them, while looking confused at Robert.

As she had with Beth, Dani began giggling at Maria's reaction to Robert. "Well, Robert, you've succeeded in confusing both of them! Normally only I can do that! Ria, I'm dropping my bags at your computer, and setting up my guitar, 'kay?" Dani darted into the house without a response, leaving two teenage girls and Robert outside, completely confused at her behavior.

After they had left their bags and began setting their band's stuff up, Dani remembered Robert. "Oh, Robert! You don't mind if we practice for a while first, do you? It's such a routine, I completely forgot about you… Sorry…" Dani looked so distraught about forgetting that he quickly assured her he didn't mind.

"Yes, Dani, you still haven't told us who he is…" Beth and Maria both turned to her expectantly, Beth picking her drumsticks up and settling herself behind her drum set, while Maria slipped her bass guitar on and fiddled with the settings.

Dani smiled as she wondered how to approach the topic. Exchanging a quick look with Robert, she finished setting her equipment up and replied, "I'll tell you later, I want your attention on the music! I wanna show y'all the song I wrote this morning. Just come in whenever you think you have something."

Before her statement could elicit a response, Dani began playing the haunting melody Robert had heard when he first walked into her house. Closing her eyes, she began to sing her new song, _Weary_.

±°±

_But I can't stop these tears from falling_

_Anymore than I can stop the rain._

They finished up with the song _Can't Stop the Rain_, and began packing up their equipment. Robert was quite shocked at how good these girls were. He could see that they had potential. Smiling warmly at his charge, he received a shy smile in return as she shrugged off her guitar strap.

Wandering back out to Maria's computer, Beth and Maria sat down in desk chairs, Beth idly twirling her drumsticks, and gazed expectantly at Dani and Robert. Dani coughed slightly and began to speak. "Well, umm… Robert's here because…" Trailing off, she sent a pained gaze over to Robert, who cleared his throat and attempted to pick up where she left off.

"Oddly enough, I am not here because you're Charmed ones, but-" He broke off when Maria and Beth both stood up in a defensive stance, flanking Dani so that none of their backs were unprotected. Dani collapsed into another fit of giggles at the look of shock on Robert's face.

As she received a mixture of glares from her friends, ranging from confused to exasperated to simple shock, Dani slowly stood up and walked over to Robert's side. "Ok, y'all, calm down. No, I didn't tell him, no, he's not evil, yes, he's on our side, now shut up, sit down, and let us talk." Robert looked on in amazement at the fact that neither girl seemed to take offense to this remark. As he made a note of it to ask Dani about later, she said, "Ok, we're Charmed, we know that TV show is real, right?" At two slow nods, she continued. "Great! So it won't come as any shock to you that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is real, too, and I'm the new Slayer, and Robert's my Watcher, right?" Dani's hopeful grin turned into a smirk at the expressions of shock on Maria and Beth's faces.

As Beth and Maria were speechless, with their expressions of disbelief on their faces, Dani's smirk turned into helpless laughter, and she collapsed into Robert, barely able to breathe. Robert simply looked on in disbelief at the whole situation. Thinking fleetingly on how comfortable Dani had become with him in such a short time, he helped her to her feet. "So, Danielle, how will we bring them out of this state?"

Dani's grin became one of evil plotting as she said, "I know _just_ the thing… DAVID!" Robert stared at her blankly before he realized that she had called for their whitelighter.

Beth's head popped up as she said in a slightly deeper voice, "Hey, Dani. What's up?"

Dani's evil grin became wider still as she said, "Snap Maria out of whatever trance she's in, and I'll tell you how she got into that state!"

Confused, but curious, Beth/David began poking Maria until she turned around and began yelling at him to stop. Snickering at the display, and shooting Maria a pointed look telling her to keep quiet, Dani decided to continue. "David, what do the Elders know about Slayers?"

Beth/David looked lost and somewhat bewildered. "Uh… not much… mostly that they exist, just like y'all exist. Why?"

Robert became slightly worried as Dani's grin turned quite evil. "Oh, no reason, just that I'm the new Slayer, and Robert over here's my Watcher."

Beth/David's eyes grew wide as he took in the image of Dani giggling as she delivered this piece of news. "Um… well… you've succeeded in doing what you've wanted for years: you pulled one over on the Elders."

Robert began to laugh as he realized what she'd been so happy about. Apparently they were always being informed of things by the Elders, and Dani finally got to inform them of something.

Calming down, Dani continued on. "Can you go tell them what's going on, tell them to, I dunno… give their blessing or whatever. I don't want to be told I can't do this. We all know I wouldn't listen anyway, so they can save it."

Somewhat shocked at Dani's acceptance of this fact, Beth/David nodded. "Sure. Beth, on the other hand, is currently freaking out. You might try to calm her down." David left, and Beth quickly jumped up and shouted at Dani, trying to get information.

Dani shook her head at Beth. "If you'll both sit down, me and Robert will explain, okay?" She appeared to be directing the question towards Robert more than she was at her friends, so Robert nodded and walked over beside her. Dani glared at the other girls until they sat quietly. "Anyway, as I was saying before y'all went catatonic, Robert showed up at my door today saying he wanted to interview me for a scholarship. After we were alone, he told me that he knew I didn't apply for a scholarship, and I reacted _pretty_ much the same way y'all did. It turns out he's my Watcher, I'm leaving for a boarding school that is "normal", except that it teaches magic instead of schoolwork, and you two are coming with me." Beth and Maria had matching looks of shock on their faces. Dani looked toward Robert. "Did I leave anything out?"

Robert smirked. "No… no you didn't. Although, you may have been able to break it to them a little more gently."

Dani shook her head violently. "No I couldn't've. That wouldn't have been as much fun!"

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Well, there y'all go. Another chapter! I'll continue from exactly where I'm leaving off next chapter. It will hopefully be up tomorrow or so… Remind me never to start stories a few days before giant projects are due, okay? Any bad grammar such as "y'all", "'kay", and "dunno" is being used to create a dialect (think Texan). Also, for future reference, unless otherwise mentioned, all songs discussed in chapters, i.e. ones sung by Dani and co., are written by me. They should be on my Funender site soon. (If you go there, my username/artist name is Stephi, and I have a badly recorded/while I was sick version on there of _Can't Stop the Rain_ from about a year ago.) I'll put a link in my profile soon.

Make a girl happy and review, please!


	3. Battles and Conversations

Brit, you're making me start this chapter at 3 AM! **I know, that's what makes me evil. **glares I'm drawing your picture today, too. **Cool! Now can we get writing please?** glares Let me collapse into sleep first.

/Time passes

Ok, it's now 3:30 AM! snickers I just "pretended to go to bed" so I could say that I couldn't sleep, and just stay up. So I'm eating chocolate to keep me awake, and I'll write more!

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Dani, Beth, Maria and Robert adjourned into master bedroom, where Robert sat in the chair, and the girls sprawled out on the bed. They were having a question and answer session. Robert noticed that whenever they came near the topic of families, the other girls distracted Robert, or they answered extremely vaguely. Robert made a mental note to find out what was going on. Maria looked over at him. "I have a question for you. How did you know we were Charmed ones?"

Robert smiled lightly. "I'm afraid I can't answer that." He was sent a glare by all three girls. "I'm sorry, but the Council told me, and didn't tell me how they knew."

Dani groaned. "Why do I have the feeling that-" Dani cut off extremely quickly at a shudder from Maria, and both she and Beth immediately took a defensive stance while staying on the bed. Robert began to ask what was wrong, but was silenced with a discreet motion of Dani's. Maria's head snapped up, and Robert immediately noticed a glint in her eye that wasn't normally there. She opened her mouth to speak when he heard Dani softly mutter to Beth, "Freeze him."

Beth complied instantly, and Maria froze in place. Both of them jumped up very quickly and Dani did a quick happy dance. Robert was baffled at why she would be doing a happy dance, until she started singing, "It's not immune to our powers! It's not immune to our powers!" Taking pity on Robert, she explained. "We've had many demons and warlocks and other evil demon-y things that are immune to witch's powers, or use them against us. It's not fun. In fact, if we were in the kitchen right now, we'd probably be fighting with knives." Dani began to giggle at Robert's shocked expression. "Yes, I did say knives. We're quite adept with them."

Robert stared at her disbelievingly. "What's going on here? I see she's… possessed or something, you're talking about knife fighting, and you're happy and laughing while you're being threatened by a demon or whatever? What have I gotten myself into?"

Dani playfully slapped him. "Very nice. For your information, it shouldn't be a hard fight. Beth, go get the Book." Beth instantly left for Maria's room. Turning back to Robert, she continued. "She's getting the Book so we can see if we can tell who it is. We've basically memorized it; it's just for fact checking. Right now, we're going to let it do its evil monologue while we figure out who it is, and then we either use the Book's spell, or I create one for us. Beth's going to be skimming the Book for information while I fight this guy."

Robert shook his head. "Why, might I ask, are you the one fighting it? And how you know Beth's not going to?"

Dani suddenly looked bored. "It's what we always do. She heals when we need it, she blows it up or freezes it. I fight it since I'm immune to the spells and stuff. It's routine. And you are going to be hiding behind that door so it doesn't see you. Demon hunting binges aren't fun, and that's what I'll have to do if he sees you, because that well let it get out that I'm a Slayer, and I don't want that." He looked like he was going to object, but she cut him off. "Don't play the Watcher card, either. You're still new to the Charmed branch of the job, and until we're more secure with the whole Slayer thing, it has to stay secret. Now go, before it unfreezes."

Robert ducked behind an open door just as Maria began to move. Seeing Dani, Maria snapped her arm out in front of her and swung to the side, as if she were sweeping papers off of a desk. The motion triggered a telekinetic episode which caused everything on that end of the room to start flying backwards, save for Dani. Dani laughed in Maria's face, and began to speak. "I will _never_ tire of you guys forgetting that I'm immune to all of that. It's completely amusing. I do know, however, that you're not immune to my power, huh?"

Robert looked on in amazement as he saw Dani seamlessly shift from a carefree, bubbling teenager to a young woman who exuded power and confidence. Maria sneered at Dani. "You don't even know who I am, witch. I'm…" Maria trailed off, beginning a monologue that Dani eventually turned her back on.

"Whatever, dumbass. You're not worth the time it takes for me to write a spell to vanquish you. Beth, the honors?" At the cue from Dani, Beth stood up, smiled sadistically, and snapped her hands open, causing a burst of fire to come from where Maria was standing, and caused Maria to drop to the floor. Dani checked her watch. "Exactly 90 minutes. Thanks, Powers that Be, for that amazing amount of time for band practice and fun. You better send me some chocolate to repay me." With a glare towards the sky, Dani turned back to Maria to see that Beth had healed all the damage the demon had done and was helping Maria to her feet.

Robert walked out from behind the door. "Very nice. I can see that you all are very used to doing this." He smirked at the three matching looks of exasperation he received from the girls. "Okay, okay, I get it. You're sick of it, I know, but you have to deal with it. Dani, could I talk to you for a few minutes."

Dani turned her head to him. "Yeah, just a sec. Beth, you and David put up a force field around you and Maria. I need to clear my head, so I'm going swimming for a few minutes. Robert's coming out back with me. Make sure the field keeps out everything." At a nod from her friends, Dani turned back to Robert and said, "Follow me, we're going out back. Just let me change." Dani grabbed her bag and walked into the bathroom, emerging a minute later in a bikini. "Ok, out back, follow me."

Dani lead Robert through the house and out the back door. She dove into the deep end, staying down for a minute or so, then popping up to catch her breath. She let herself float suspended in the deep end of the pool, with her head in the water and her eyes closed. Stroking to the edge of the pool, she pulled herself out and grabbed her towel. She looked apologetically to Robert. "I'm sorry about that, I've just had an overload of stuff to deal with today; I needed to cleanse myself. Water's my element, so I came out here to sort through it all. I'm good now. What's up?"

Robert shook his head, still amazed at how quickly Dani's emotions changed. "Yes, I wanted to talk to you about the Charmed Ones." At Dani's confused look, he continued. "You three seemed so… familiar with your roles. When that demon possessed Maria up there, and caused a telekinetic landslide, you didn't even flinch. You just smiled condescendingly. And the other two did what you told them without any questions. It's… different than what I expected. I expected three teenage girls who fought over who had the most power and talked constantly about boys. Instead, I see three powerful witches who have perfect harmony and a band."

Dani smiled slightly at the veiled complement. "We've been doing this for two years. It's normal for odd things to happen around us. As for them listening to me, I do that for them, also. In this line of work, if someone has an idea, it has to get tried fast, or someone can die. And you'd be surprised how often we talk about boys. But, yeah, we do mesh well, don't we." She spoke with her voice light, but her eyes pensive. "The Power of Three is so familiar, you know, but… This Slayer thing is so new. It's exciting, but slightly nerve-wracking. I don't have any training in fighting and stuff…What if I'm no good? What if I endanger Beth or Maria?"

Dani looked so lost and forlorn that Robert pulled her into a one-armed hug. He noticed worriedly that she flinched at the contact. Making a mental note of that information, he spoke soothingly to her. "If what I saw up there is any indication, you'll do fine." She looked up at him skeptically. "I'm serious! You had an… an aura of power radiating off of you during that fight. Even if you weren't a powerful witch, you looked the part. And I don't want you worrying about the Slayer bit just yet. You don't live on a hellmouth, which you should thank the Powers that Be every day for, so you don't have to Slay everything in sight just yet. I'll be training you a little bit here, and we'll be training on a normal schedule once we get to the school."

Dani let herself relax slightly. She knew she could trust Robert; her empathy powers were telling her he didn't want her to be upset or hurt. She smiled at her Watcher, then pulled away and stood. "We better get back inside before they kill each other." She shook her head. "How those two became friends is beyond me, but, hey, they like each other." She giggled. "I _so_ didn't mean that the way it sounded. Come on!" Dani grabbed her towel and half bounced, half skipped to the back door, letting herself into the house. Robert, shaking his head at the girl, followed her.

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I know, I know, it's short. This has _actually_ been done for a few days, I was just too lazy to post it… :sheepish giggle: Anyway, I know that this has been going pretty slowly, and I have actually come up with somewhat of a plotline! (Cheers heard in background) This will speed up in a few chapters, I just have some important information and character setup to do at the moment.


	4. Information and Storytime

I'M BACK! I didn't disappear. Blame a combination of writer's block, AP courses, and two failed NaNoWriMo's. Umm… I'm attempting to update all of my stories at least once per month now, so it won't be a year long wait again. ::smiles sheepishly:: **Well, it might be. I give you what to write, you just write it in your head and not on the computer!** I'll give you that one, Brit. I've had part of this chapter written since last DECEMBER, and the rest written since, uhh… June. I wrote it when my family went on vacation out west. I mean, Yeah! Disneyland, Vegas, woohoo!, but Joshua Tree National Park, endless driving through the desert? Not so much fun. Especially with no books and a broken iPod.

Also, a friend of mine read this story and asked me if this story will be Dani/Robert. Now, as no one else sees the future chapters except for me, my reaction to this was: "EW!" She proceeded to point out to me that the character's ages weren't described well. Dani, Beth, and Maria are all 16/17 (Dani's the oldest at 17, the other two are a little younger), and Robert is in his late 20's, like, 27, 28, etc. ::sigh:: On with the story!

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Dani and Robert sat on a spare mattress in Maria's room at about 3 in the morning. Beth and Maria had just crashed, curled up in their spots. Dani and Robert sat talking under their breath while Dani used her laptop to update her website.

Robert leaned over to see what was going on on the computer. "So, what is this you're doing now?"

Dani's eyes flickered up from the lines of text she had been editing, flitting back down again before she responded. "This? This is the coding for my website. I'm redoing the layout, so I'm coming back through and updating the code. Why I have a hundred-so page site, I'll never know…"

"… I thought you were a Charmed one, not a webmaster…"

"Come on, you didn't seriously think that all that was on my laptop was music and pointless crap?"

"Well… actually… yes." (AN: That just sounded so Giles-y and British I had to put it in)

"Oh, ye of little faith. I've been on the computer since before I was two. Designing graphics since I was 12. Running my website since I was 14… It's not that hard. I'm a very Willow-y person when it comes to technology."

"I-I see…" Robert looked flustered at the way she never looked up from her code during this conversation. Dani raised her head and closed her laptop.

"So… What are we going to do about training and stuff? I've always wanted to learn to fight."

"I'll tell you if you tell me how you're awake still. Beth and Maria collapsed an hour ago, and you don't seem tired in the slightest."

"That? Oh, that's easy. I don't sleep. Well, I sleep, because it'd be impossible to survive without sleep, but I frequently pull all-nighters. I have trouble falling asleep before 5 AM. It's a problem, but I'm used to it. If I stay up all night, I have a better chance of getting at least one decent night's sleep during the week."

"Dani, that can't be good for you. Have you told your mother about your problems sleeping? She could try to get you sleeping pills."

Dani bristled slightly at the mention of her mother. Her eyes became stony as she responded. "She tells me that it's my fault I can't sleep, and I'd be able to sleep if I'd get up on time. Which I do. She doesn't realize I only sleep late on weekends because I can't fall asleep. Anyway, I don't want to talk about her, if that's alright."

"Dani, do you and your mother not get along or-"

"STOP!" Robert looked shocked that she would speak to him like that until he caught a glance of her eyes. They had a panicked look about them, the way a caged tiger might. He reached out to touch her arm, but pulled his hand back when she began shaking. Her eyes began to shine with tears. "I-I-I'm sorry… I didn't mean to yell… I won't do it again, I'm really sorry. Please don't hate me…"

Robert leaned down to look into her eyes. "Dani… Dani, I don't hate you. I was just startled that you'd shout like that, that's all."

Dani's eyes slowly focused. "I'm so sorry… I didn't mean to shout at you, I really didn't. I-I just… I don't want to talk about Mom, okay? Please, please don't think badly of me because of this. I would hate to think that happened."

Robert shook his head. "I don't think any worse of you, I promise." Sensing that she wanted to drop the subject, he moved on. "Now, you said you wanted to know when we'd begin training, right? Well, since school's already started for the year, we'll try to get you transferred as soon as possible… I don't even think that we'll need to do any training here. With any luck, we'll have you three at Delaine within the week."

Dani's face brightened at that. "Really? In a week? YES!" With a slight shudder, she straightened her shoulders (MN: **Nice going with the tongue twister there, Steph.** Shut up.) and pulled a new document up on her laptop. "How big are the dorm rooms?"

Robert shook his head at her, laughing under his breath. He could tell she was trying to hide her emotions. He decided once again to leave the topic be.

(AN Yes, I'm an AN-oholic this chapter: I thought about ending this chapter here, because I can't figure out how to end this scene. So, I'll probably go back and add in the rest of this scene later… But not now.)

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The girls and Robert sat at the kitchen table eating breakfast. The trio had decided to make pancakes with sprinkles and food coloring in them. The girls were telling Robert stories of some of the… odder things that had happened to them.

"… and, somehow, Dani's and Beth's animals got their personalities linked! Between Dani's kitten Cherry and Beth's dog and cat, Argus and Anabelle, the two of them never had any privacy!" Maria said, giggling.

Robert laughed. "Oh, my… I wish I could have seen that… How could it have happened?"

Maria laughed harder. "We know how it happed, and it wasn't even anything cool, like a demon, or warlock, or anything! It was our-"

"-Your-" Beth and Dani interjected.

"-botched spell to try to get our animals to talk! Thankfully, it wore off on its on."

"Yeah, but not nearly fast enough. It was bad enough that the spell let them talk, but you try explaining away discussing yours and Dani's choices of clothing without having seen each other, not on the phone, and doing different voices!" Beth groused.

Dani grabbed everyone's empty plate and brought them over to the sink. "Well, thank God we won't have to try to explain things away from now on. I was tired of explaining why my stuff always got broken when y'all came over."

"Although, I have to say, I'll miss the challenge of coming up with good excuses off the top of my head…" Maria sighed.

Beth turned toward Robert. "Speaking of the school, what sort of classes are we going to have? Like, just magic, magic and regular…?" She trailed off.

Robert opened his briefcase and pulled out the _real_ brochures for the girls. "Well, you will each have most, if not all, of your classes together. You will all have a half-hour class for your four core courses: English, history, science, and math. You'll each also have a half-hour elective such as psychology, sociology, government, etc. Those classes will end at 11:30 in the morning. Then there's an hour lunch.. After lunch, you'll have your magic classes. Those will change from day to day, and will go on until 3:30. You'll then have a two hour study hall/quiet conversation time. After that is dinner, and Dani will have physical training and weapons training for an hour or so, then patrolling. Weekends will bring five hours of physical training and two hours of weapons training, and an hour of language classes over the course of the day. Of course, Dani will also have patrolling on the weekends. So, all in all, it will be a pretty rigorous school, but there's not a lot of homework, and you'll have plenty of free time." He smirked at the girls' expressions – they were enthralled with the brochures. "So, what do you girls think?"

Dani was the only one who could form a coherent thought. "I think… we're going to be very happy there…"

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Um… that's all I really have for you guys now. See my profile for a longer authors note/apology! I love you all, see ya!


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